The Wiwi Jury — our in-house panel of music unprofessionals — travelled to Iceland to review the acts of Söngvakeppnin 2018. Up next is Þórunn Antonía performing “Shine“. Did she shine and stand out in the Icelandic selection? Read on to find out!
Þórunn Antonía – “Shine”
“Shine” reviews
Antranig: The first few notes are promising and then… nothing happens. This had the potential to be a Eurovision banger or a fierce schlager entry. Instead, it ended up being a torrid effort with nothing going for it. Þórunn’s strong vocals may be enough to carry it through to the final but this should not be a contender if Iceland want any chance of ending their non-qualification streak.
Score: 3/10
Robyn: I’ve listened to this song three times so far and each time I struggled to pay attention. Perhaps it’s just too chilled out. There’s nothing about it that captivates the listener. Even the chorus feels like it’s really lacking energy. It would work with a revamp, but honestly it’s a bit late for that.
Score: 4/10
Barnabas: I can get why people were disappointed in this year’s selection. This song is just an average pop effort, singing about being strong without power, without anything that could make a difference for me. Iceland can offer much better than this.
Score: 3/10
Chris: Considering Þórunn’s back catalogue, this is even more disappointing. There’s no energy in the chorus, and it just feels like it drags on and on. It’s one note from start to end. The lyrics are uninspiring, too. There’s so many problems, and not even Þórunn’s (quite good) vocal can salvage this.
Score: 4/10
Luis: This put me on sleep mode. She says she’s a “shooting star”, but it must be a shooting star in slow motion. “Shine” is languid, uninteresting and Þórunn Antonía does little to make it more appealing. She starts singing with a touch of sultryness that soon disappear. Then we’re left with a singer who does big notes over a half baked base.
Score: 3/10
Natalie: Ooooh, sending a song titled “Shine” to Eurovision is a dangerous prospect. Especially when it’s insipid and unoriginal as this. The production is charming and rich, but seriously how many times do we have to hear “I will shiiiiiiiiine” before people realise that there are other metaphors to choose from? This song could be really nice if it had even a bit more thought put into it. There are some really good elements here, and Þorunn does have a nice voice. But I’m just over all these singers thinking they’re shooting stars.
Score: 4/10
In our Söngvakeppnin 2018 Wiwi Jury, we have 10 jurors but only room for 6 reviews. The rest of our scores can be found below:
Aline: 3/10
Bogdan: 4/10
Jonathan: 4/10
Sebastian: 3/10
Before calculating the average score, the highest and lowest scores are dropped. This is to remove outliers and reduce potential bias. We have removed a low of 3 and a high of 4.
Nice start but the chorus is underwhelming.
4/10
Couldn’t finish the song on first listen and that’s never a good ‘shine’.
A 3/10.
This might be the most in-sync the Wiwi Jury has ever been. Everyone gave it either a 3 or a 4!
I guess the word ‘shine’ has been destroyed when it comes to ESC entries. It’s way overused, so only the strongest entries can still hold-up while having it in their title. This, unfortunately, isn’t one of them. The singer is very lovely and her voice is very nice. The song is pleasant on the ear. However, it’s very pedestrian, by the numbers and obviously made with Eurovision in mind.
While I might be more benevolent to it than the Wiwi Jury reviews, it’s still only a 5.5/10